Like A Silver Snake It Glided Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

Like A Silver Snake It Glided



Like a silver snake it glided
Yes
That was my verse yesterday
And so will I today.


Through magic herbs and green
It glided
Silver yet to rainbow colors
Chameleon-like changing sheen


Like a silver snake it glided
Yes
That was my verse yesterday
And so will I today.


In the deserted hall went I
And with me my harp carried
Sate I


There of a sudden strung
By chance and probability
My lyre


And then my voice that had not spoken
Long
Then my voice sung
And then my song that had not sung
Long
Then my song sung.


Ring
Rains that fall to-night
The stars have hid themselves
Mischievous elves! Behind the
Laden clouds. And over the hill
Fires intermittent lightning
Loud.
String
The chords Poet-Seer of the sad heart
And of the pining eyes:
Your life is broken yet not
The chords of your harp
Your lyre:
Sadness, desperation, all ill
Revolves around you
Presses
As mill-stones press
Yet still you breathe in misery.
Sing
Then Poet-Seer the heavens
Are not against you.
Loud heard I the Voice; it was
A noble Voice and ancient
And your breast heaved in
Its miseries unfortunate.
And
From behind the hill
Where lightning roared
Hours, just hours
The Dawn comes jubilant
And it be day, new day.


In the nitrous clouds
I smelt the scent of grass
That was not lead
The color was of green
And sweet the scent was
The scent of grass:
For Dawn had just been born
And a new day,
At last.


Throughout the way
I labored on the plain
Harsh pointed rocks
And often thorns and
Prickly plants yet on
And on and on
I trudged:
Fear by my side was
And Desperation to my other side
In to my ear whispered small
So
On and on and on
Trudged
And trudged I.


I wrote on the old rocks
That had been long of
Old geology when
The earth with dinosaurs
Teemed:
Humans were not:
As yet
As yet


In to the asylum of the brain
I built a niche as fast
As beautiful as secure
As a cell, as a room small
And demure:
And in that universe I placed
The mass universe.
The whole mass universe.


Lake
That as a mirror in the lights
That as a twilight reflect
Change
From minute to minute
Second to second
At will
In the mild winter chill
Tell me
Tell me
What be in you
What tales you hold
And then
When you come whispering
Into my eager hearing
Then
Let your words fall as hard rocks
That their old beauty will
Noble emerge.


Ancient pilgrims of the nobility
That fades,
Fades slowly
In to the glooms of the night
After
Each sweet red dusk
And blinding twilight
Calm
Serene
Where sirens on the rock do chant
And sing the lay of love lost
Of vessels on green tempests tossed
Tale after tale in words silvery:
Whilst the glad moon arrives
And from the benighted sky
Bewitched it smile.
Ancient pilgrims of the nobility
That fades,
Fades slowly
In to the glooms of the night


Verse and song
That starts with flow
As the wide Amazon flows
In its wide mouth:
Yet
Suddenly it narrows
Verse and song
Still sweet
The harp, the lyre sings
And
Fast and wild
And made
The fingers of Poet Seer
On the yielding lyre sing:
Verse and song
That starts with flow
As the wide Amazon flows
In its wide mouth:


Wave after wave
The seas ride through the glooms
Of yet another night:
And
In that mid-sea screams
And yells of fear
And desperation arrive:
For there
No human hears
No human be.


Let beauty form a web
Let beauty form a sky
Let beauty as dusk pine
Let beauty brim as wine
Let beauty foam as ale
Let beauty turn all pale
Let beauty fall all still
And mute at touch of chill
Let beauty speak a Voice
In the high heavens rise
Be a Poet Seer’s great prize:
Let beauty drink the air
From gardens and fields fair
Let beauty scent as green
In the dusk red pining sheen
Let beauty decrease age
Yet leave us wise and sage:
Let beauty flow with seed
Of life and more life breed
Let beauty show her wonder
And surprise all as thunder
Let beauty ride the sea
The Oceans wide and free
Let beauty roll on shores
As waves and boats on oars
Let beauty poor be
And shine more in her misery:
Let beauty open her heart
And you will see her art
Let beauty talk and think
In fear you will not sink
Nor ruled by desperation
But these transform to inspiration
Let beauty be seasons, earth, skies
And all that with herself vies
And see that this reaching
Your verse you end with singing.


Hard the words
As a hammer:
The forge of verse
Is burning
Yet
Yet
Hard the words
Fall
As a hammer falls.


If words fall hard in verse then beauty reigns
And then let words come out hard
From the ever-heating forge of the heart.


This mode verse will not need much Art
Nor need to study rules or follow them
For all comes from the heart.


And for her tiara beauty will choose
Her hard, hard words; her senses lose
In the sweet honeyed words that fall as hard.


There
There Evolution goes:
there
The modern style
That was most recent lies
Lies panting in its throes:
And Evolution grows
And verse and song
Do grow:
There
There Evolution goes.


Out, out in to the starry skies
And in to the studded woods
Woods studded with night dews
That shine
Each by each as a new star.


See, see long is the night
And far, too far,
Of the new Dawn the sight
And of her handmaidens
The smiling light.


Together huddled we
In hiding from fear and misery
In to an eastern cave
Unknown
And mute and still and hid:
We, all of us, all humanity.


And in the old and ancient nights
Shrouds and ghosts and shadows
Will walk the tree studded woods
So will they to-night
In the vast studded star light.


And in the coming months and years
With magic wand willed I
That flowers with the stars
Girdle the noble and night sky:
And Dawn with twilight color rise
Albeit her youth as ancient as be wise.


The night dews will carry a brine
A small percentage
Potent yet, potent to full,
That in its potency magic be
And to mists will transform
That go
Around the studded woods that
Paler grow
In to the light of stars that slow
Smile on our troubled earth till
Each now morrow.


Let this be, let this be,
With Voice of Poet Seer
I
Command, my lyre string
To adorn and sing
My command with verse sweet
And song and music full to meet.


Count of the wood, old oak
That by a coppice of firs
Surrounded be
Show, show this starry night
The art and wonder of beauty
But more
More than all her open heart.


Verse rise as mist and round
The dreamy eyes of the wise
Owl abound:
Turn round and round
The dreamy owl and wise
Without disturbing sound.


And then the scenes of the play
As with the hours of the night
They too one by one, one
After one advance; in sight
Looms sad yet sweet
The end of scenes.


Out, out in to the starry skies
And in to the studded woods
Woods studded with night dews
That shine
Each by each as a new star.


Echoes that bound and
Rebound
Echoes of magic sound
Echoes this night
Echoes of starry light,
Night dews
And mists that rise:
Echoes that old Earth heal
Echoes that beauty steal
From the sweet moon
That smiles;
Echoes that the hours count
One after one till on the hill
The early wonder of the Dawn will mount.


In February
Dark, hidden, dagger, cloak,
February be dark, I fear,
I fear
Yet
Yet another month and more
Will soon appear.


How
How people move in the streets
To-day
And how they dress in Sunday:
In working days more modest
These people dress
Yet are beautiful no less.

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